Mojang’s Minecraft follow-up, Scrolls, launch date and price revealed

Word broke in March that Mojang’s next project, Scrolls, which happens to be the studio’s first real game project after Minecraft, would be launching its open beta back in April. It’s almost June now, and we still haven’t seen the launch of the digital TCG. We’ve all been around the release date block to know that it’s difficult to hit targeted dates, so we cut Mojang a bit of slack, and some of us might have downloaded roughly one billion different mobile TCGs in an attempt to satisfy the urges that Scrolls was supposed to quell. Now, Mojang has announced that the game will hit open beta starting June 3, which is effectively an official launch for studio.

Though this is the open beta for the game, Mojang is employing a similar strategy it used for Minecraft, where consumers can purchase the game and get access to the polished, playable open beta. The game will run you $20, but details aren’t yet clear on what the purchase entails. With Minecraft, if you bought into the alpha or beta you received certain perks, such as free updates for the rest of the game’s life, rather than being charged some kind of expansion fee that may come down the line. Keep an eye on the game’s website for more information regarding a beta purchase, which should be announced sometime before that June 3 launch.

It’s probably safe to say that Scrolls won’t hit the levels of popularity that Minecraft reached — if anything because TCGs are something of a niche market, whereas Minecraft essentially created a market — but mainly because not many things have managed to hit a Minecraftian level of popularity. However, Scrolls looks to be like a true digital TCG, opposed to iOS card battlers that are just a stats-comparison affair and dispense with any level of strategy. There is certainly enough room in that market for Scrolls to make a splash.

If you don’t mind parting with $20 in a few days, you’ll not only get to see what Mojang has been up to since Minecraft, but you’ll have a new digital TCG that might scratch a certain itch that’ll prevent you from overloading your phone with the TCG dregs of your preferred app store.